Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

[jpdavis82]

This was a very interesting quote by Rex Dickson Creative Gameplay Designer for Madden 25, today in his podcast with Rich Grisham.

Rex said one of the main misunderstandings about the dev process, is they do not get the direction from executives. They come in for reviews and review the software. Not one time did one of the execs come in and tell them "I want you to do this." It doesn't come from marketing either, the marketing and PR dept doesn't come in and tell them to do something because it will sell to the masses. It comes from the millions of gamers, community forums, game changer program, etc.... Rex addressed the Madden team being lazy, said it couldn't be further from the truth, team is committed to doing whatever it takes to get it done. Understands they are under scrutiny due to the exclusive license. Realizes it's going to take another year or two to get where they want to go. Wants to encourage people to look at the direction of this franchise since Cam Weber came here. New leadership team, new direction. Rex said it will be another year or two before we get this fully turned around. Look at the gameplay improvements this year and last year, trying to cover legacy issues, double down and focus on gameplay, while they also cover new features and new innovations like the IE last year. Hope to keep seeing a improvement in Metacritic rating, want to be a 90+ rated title every year.

[Skyboxer]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

I thought I seen in one of the new posts today that they took something to the marketing dept "for approval" ....
or did I misread that?

Edit:
Found it.....from your cliff notes post

"Run Free was not originally going to be a big feature until Victor Lugo got with Rex and Cam about having precision modifier tied to it. They took it before the marketing team and they approved the feature."

[splff3000]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

This was a very interesting quote by Rex Dickson Creative Gameplay Designer for Madden 25, today in his podcast with Rich Grisham.

Rex said one of the main misunderstandings about the dev process, is they do not get the direction from executives. They come in for reviews and review the software. Not one time did one of the execs come in and tell them "I want you to do this." It doesn't come from marketing either, the marketing and PR dept doesn't come in and tell them to do something because it will sell to the masses. It comes from the millions of gamers, community forums, game changer program, etc.... Rex addressed the Madden team being lazy, said it couldn't be further from the truth, team is committed to doing whatever it takes to get it done. Understands they are under scrutiny due to the exclusive license.

Sorry JP, but I don't believe this for one minute. For one, several devs have used the phrase "get approval from marketing" when discussing and implementing features over the years. I always understood why they would need approval from marketing for discussing features, but I never understood why they needed approval for implementing features ........... until one dev cleared it up. I think it was Ian or someone like that back when the devs were on the site. I'll try to find the post. Until I do tho, they pretty much said they have to look at how they can/will market a feature before it's implemented. I know for a fact Ian said a feature or two was scrapped for marketing reasons. All this was awhile ago so it's a daunting task to go back and find all of this stuff, but if there is someone else that has been around for awhile I'm sure they can attest to this.

As for the execs, my boy AJ pretty much said their input ruins the game. I've known AJ (on the internet) for a long time and see no reason why he'd lied about this. Honestly tho, I could care less about marketing and/or the execs influence as long as Madden is a good game when it's released.

[Sheen_O_Mack]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

I thought I seen in one of the new posts today that they took something to the marketing dept "for approval" ....
or did I misread that?

Edit:
Found it.....from your cliff notes post

"Run Free was not originally going to be a big feature until Victor Lugo got with Rex and Cam about having precision modifier tied to it. They took it before the marketing team and they approved the feature."

Both quotes seem to contradict each other, but it could have meant to be that the marketing team approved of it to use as the back of the box feature not that they approved of it to be in the game (which I would assume a marketing team would have no say in what goes in the game).

At least I'm hoping that it was the previous dev team that was the issue and not the executives at EA.

[jpdavis82]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

Both quotes seem to contradict each other, but it could have meant to be that the marketing team approved of it to use as the back of the box feature not that they approved of it to be in the game (which I would assume a marketing team would have no say in what goes in the game).

At least I'm hoping that it was the previous dev team that was the issue and not the executives at EA.

That's exactly it. The executives Francis whatever his name is and Andrew Wilson, are the ones Rex said never told them what to put in the game. This could be as simple as John Ricitello may have told the devs what to put in the game and the new guy Francis isn't doing that. Taking the feature before marketing he said was about them supporting it as a main feature. He never talked about taking the new blocking it infinity 2 before them. It's all part of the process, bottom line, if you believe Rex, they aren't being told what to put in the game anymore.

[kehlis]

That's exactly it. The executives Francis whatever his name is and Andrew Wilson, are the ones Rex said never told them what to put in the game. This could be as simple as John Ricitello may have told the devs what to put in the game and the new guy Francis isn't doing that. Taking the feature before marketing he said was about them supporting it as a main feature. He never talked about taking the new blocking it infinity 2 before them. It's all part of the process, bottom line, if you believe Rex, they aren't being told what to put in the game anymore.

This is the FIRST time we've heard any indication that this is true in how many years???

I'll go with what we've heard over the past 10 years and to be quite frank, the angle that makes more sense than anything else.

[Sheen_O_Mack]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

This is the FIRST time we've heard any indication that this is true in how many years???

I'll go with what we've heard over the past 10 years and to be quite frank, the angle that makes more sense than anything else.

You're still going with it even though there has been a recent change in leadership?

Don't get me wrong with Maddens past everyone has every right to be skeptical, but I'll judge Cam and these guys on the product that is on the shelves and not based on what was done before they took over.

[kehlis]

You're still going with it even though there has been a recent change in leadership?

Don't get me wrong with Maddens past everyone has every right to be skeptical, but I'll judge Cam and these guys on the product that is on the shelves and not based on what was done before they took over.

Yes I am, my apologies.

[bukktown]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

I thought I seen in one of the new posts today that they took something to the marketing dept "for approval" ....
or did I misread that?

Edit:
Found it.....from your cliff notes post

"Run Free was not originally going to be a big feature until Victor Lugo got with Rex and Cam about having precision modifier tied to it. They took it before the marketing team and they approved the feature."

Top Notch stuff right here!

Thanks SkyB!

[infemous]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

well then marketing are the issue if they allowed them to talk about run free like it was some side scrolling arcade fighter game smh.

They can't even make a new feature sound appealing yet they have final say over the implementation of specific features???

[Madwolf]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

So basically what you're saying is that we didn't get line fixes because they had to add medium socks. Wow, so glad they got that feature in now!

[rootofalleli]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

Upper management doesn't have to dictate features to shape the game. A company's philosophy determines how priorities are set. Personnel decisions and budgets have a big impact on what gets made and how much focus an item gets.

If you're focused on a mass audience, you do some things differently. EA cares a lot about Metacritic, for example, so you can expect a focus on generating good reviews. That's pretty normal of course, but let's look at how Madden really works for some of us. We invest days, weeks, maybe months in a franchise team. After a while, we notice some ugly AI issues, like RGIII not getting resigned or Arian Foster playing like an All-Pro in 2018. After a few seasons we start to see patterns - maybe there's always a 2,000 yard rusher or two, or maybe 2 TE offenses don't exist, or maybe certain positions don't progress, or maybe the Hall of Fame is broken. Are professional reviewers from key gaming websites going to find this stuff in time to write a review before release? And if they do, will Madden's mass audience want to read that review? And will EA give that reviewer an advance copy next year?

I'm not going to rehash everything that's ever been bad about Madden. The point is that the way EA decides to measure success and set priorities impacts the game, even if the CEO and the board couldn't give a flip what the features are. If the goal is to make sure the Facebook page has plenty of likes, then we get what we got this year for franchise mode. So far, I expect a lot more breadth and a lot of familiar features, but no more depth than we had 10 years ago.

[SteboSSK]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

Just sounds like more of a reason to wait til next year IMO. I dont have that Madden/NCAA itch like most. Bought into 12 and 13 after avoiding it since 08. I'll just wait on all the problems to be talked about here, possible rental and then make my decision. Don't buy into the hype. Make them prove.

[kjcheezhead]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

I remember when Madden 10 released, Ian was excited about stadium specific chants being in the game. At the last moment they were scrapped until Madden 11 released because 10 already had enough back of the box features in place.

I can't blame anyone but marketing or the suits for that decision.

[Trick13]

Re: Maybe it's not the "Suits" that have been the problem....

I remember when Madden 10 released, Ian was excited about stadium specific chants being in the game. At the last moment they were scrapped until Madden 11 released because 10 already had enough back of the box features in place.

I can't blame anyone but marketing or the suits for that decision.

That is the stuff that irritates customers the most, and people who work on the game should anonymously "leak" that mularkey every time it happens, until it gets out there so much that it aggravates the community into long rant/threads that get back to developers and eventually marketing and the "suits" see how stupid that is.